Principal Clinical Psychologist

Job overview

Main duties of the job

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Be responsible for choosing and providing appropriate highly specialist psychological assessments including general mental health, risk and neuropsychological.
• Neuropsychological assessments are carried out to aid in the diagnosis and management of dementias and other neurological conditions through timely pre-assessment, assessment, and diagnosis for people of any age with dementia. Post-diagnostic support is provided to help people to live well with their diagnosis and for their relatives, including helping to make sense of some of the more confusing and distressing symptoms that can arise in dementia and to consider their self-care as they support their relative.
• Employ a broad theoretical knowledge base to analyse, interpret and compare complex information in order to develop a highly specialist understanding of people’s difficulties and needs and to design psychological treatments and interventions tailored to individual need.
• Be responsible for direct delivery of a broad range of specialist psychological interventions and treatments, and be able to modify and amend these as required and as practice and experience demands.
• Be responsible for providing and receiving highly complex, sensitive, distressing and emotional information in relation to mental health issues, where there may be barriers to acceptance.
• Spend sustained amounts of time with service users who may be aggressive and hostile, who may have poor communication skills and self-care and special physical and/or mental health needs.
• Communicate across language and cultural barriers using interpreters where indicated.
• Be responsible for recording, monitoring and reporting on clinical work and communicating complex clinical information to a variety of recipients, e.g. service users, families and carers, other professionals and other statutory and voluntary organisations, orally, in writing and/or electronically, and as specified by the service.
• Take into account the particular needs of people from minority ethnic groups and adapt assessment, formulation and intervention as appropriate.

• Use a broad theoretical knowledge base and highly specialist clinical skills to develop and support the psychological skills of others (assistant, trainee and other psychologists and members of other staff groups, particularly community and inpatient based staff) via the development and delivery of teaching, training, supervision, support and consultation.
• Be responsible for providing a psychological perspective/psychological expertise for service or team activities, including clinical care, team or service dynamics, systems, health promotion, team or service organisation, in a range of settings, e.g. CPA meetings, case discussions, team meetings etc.
• Provide advice, guidance and support in more general ways, to staff in the community and wards, and to families and carers.
• Be responsible for developing and maintaining knowledge of local resources and developing working relationships with relevant statutory, voluntary and community groups and organisations.
• Be responsible for proposing innovative responses to identified community needs and developing these in consultation with senior colleagues.
• Supervise clinical/counselling psychologists in training, (from two years post qualification) and other staff as appropriate.
• Supervise qualified clinical/counselling psychologists as appropriate.
• Participate in the organisation and delivery of training events and consultancy covering this highly specialist area, and including work with local voluntary organisations.
• Participate in the evaluation of services, including collection of monitoring information as required.
• Contribute to service development, raising the profile of Older Adult Mental Health at a borough level.
• Formulate and undertake service related research and audit and support other staff in research activities.
• Receive regular clinical and management supervision in accordance with good practice guidelines to ensure high quality work, to engage in the Individual Performance Review process and continuing professional development, and generally work within a clinical governance framework.